Effectiveness of Safe Patient Handling Equipment

Effectiveness of Safe Patient Handling Equipment & Devices for Decreasing Nurse Injuries

• The development of assistive patient handling equipment and devices has essentially rendered the act of strict "manual" patient handling unnecessary as a function of nursing care.
• Assistive patient handling equipment and devices control the ergonomic hazard associated with patient handling by technologically "engineering out" the energy/force imposed onto the nurse worker during the act of lifting, transferring or repositioning patients.
• Application of assistive patient handling technology fulfills an ergonomic approach within nursing practice by designing and fitting the job or workplace to match the capabilities and limitations of the human body.
• A growing number of health care facilities have incorporated patient handling technology and have reported positive results. Injuries among nursing staffs have dramatically declined since implementing patient handling equipment and devices along with an institutional commitment to the safest available methods. As a result, the number of lost work days secondary to injury and staff turnover has declined. Cost-benefit analyses have also shown that assistive patient handling technology successfully reduces workers' compensation costs for musculoskeletal disorders.